15 things Mallory consumed this week

Dispatch from Montana

This July, I’m having guest writers contribute their own 15 things lists every Friday. Last week you got Avi’s. This week’s list comes care of my friend Mallory Rice, who edits every essay I write for this newsletter and whose highly specific tastes I’ve always loved. When she moved to Montana during the pandemic, I was shocked (she was so New York to me), but seeing her thrive there makes a completely different kind of sense.

This is a July special. To access my weekly 15 things lists the rest of the year, become a paying subscriber.

Mallory here, bursting out of my bucking chute with what is sure to be the most, uh, regional “15 Things I Consumed” in recent memory. If Avi nepotismed his way into his writing gig last week, you could say I’m here by means of a complex abuse of power (Haley and I are both technically each other’s bosses). I know Haley from the one-ish year that we worked together at Man Repeller (did I cry when she quit? Not in front of her) and before that I edited other things—namely a Snapchat magazine for teens called Sweet (RIP) and (also RIP) the print version of Nylon. (Yes, I did edit Cory Kennedy and Peaches Geldof’s columns for many years, you’re welcome and I’m sorry, AMA.) Anyway, I live in Livingston, Montana now with my bird dog named Ted where we subsist on various lettuces and herbs grown in my backyard. I also live within walking distance of a grocery store.

Me & Ted in the Beartooths

This past week was atypical due to the holiday and my best friend being in town, but things were nonetheless consumed. Might I suggest setting the mood by playing this Jimmy Buffet deep cut while you read?

1. My therapist’s take on the Open Marriage essay. (I know Haley already linked to this, but getting my therapist’s take was the final phase of viral essay analysis.) Mary Beth thinks that part of what’s so gripping about the piece is that it is written from deep within the experience—the messy, fumbling figuring out that is both excruciating and essential. I would like to read many more things written by Jean Garnett. I know some people criticized the piece for not providing a tidy conclusion, but I think agenda-fueled essays are a plague :)

2. Smoked Trout Dip served with a sleeve of Ritz. This has been my go-to friends-in-town snack (sometimes I swap crème fraîche for cream cheese if resources are limited, delicious either way). I pick up the trout from a local spot called Matt’s, but for my next visitor, I want to catch and smoke it myself. Then, fingers crossed, I will know peace….

3. This Hose Nozzle meme. Brought me a lot of joy during a dark time online. I’m a cone gal. The soaker is confounding. Jet is straight-up violent. Genuinely interesting that Kanye identifies as a mist guy. 

   weteggs

   

   A post shared by @weteggs

   Reminds me: Earlier this week I saw a newspaper ad for a nursery that bragged about having “no sissy plants.” As if any plant has ever been a sissy! This is my nozzle of choice, I’m very happy with her. 

4. A lil Calle Del Mar knit tank from the Ssense sale. Every now and then there’s a brand with colors so good they make me feel genuinely off my rocker. This is that brand for me right now.

5. The 1994 bull riding romp 8 Seconds. My best friend and I have a tradition of watching it after we go to a rodeo, which we did for the 4th of July. Peak Luke Perry. 

6. Lila Shapiro’s NYMag profile of Nathan Fielder. Can’t really think of anything I wouldn’t give to experience what it’s like to be in an editing room with Nathan Fielder and John Wilson.

7. A Youtube video that teaches you how to train your dog to bring you a beer from the fridge. A key initiative for Q2.

8. My friend Anna Topuriya’s most recent Substack newsletter, which she sends every so often. Anna is one of my favorite painters. She has a way of evoking landscapes—wistful, romantic, foreboding—that makes my heart wanna burst. Getting a glimpse inside her process is such a treat. Truly a queen among content creators.

   

   TERROR OF UNCERTAIN SIGN, FLAMES, acrylic paint on paper, 21” x 29” (53cm x 74cm), 2019

9. This article, published by High Country News after a major flood in the Yellowstone region in the late 90s. (You may have heard about the flooding here a few weeks ago.) It’s basically about what happens when landowners take river-bank stabilization into their own hands for lack of a larger community strategy—one person described DIY efforts as possibly transforming the Yellowstone River into “an armored channel.” I hope some bold ideas will come out of this latest disaster, but I do feel concerned knowing that Montana’s current governor is journalist body-slammer and all-around waking nightmare, Greg Gianforte. Livingston is a heavenly place where a lot of great people and businesses are still recovering. If you’d like to donate you can do that here.

10. A Modified Martini. (Definitely needs a better name.) My friend tried to order a dirty martini at Chico Hot Springs but the bartender said it was “too much alcohol for the springs” (lol) so she made a version that’s just a shot of gin, a generous pour of club soda, olive brine, & two olives. Like a martini spritzer, basically. We’re drinking them all the time now!

11. The John Early episode of “How Long Gone.” Listening to JE talk to the HLG boys was oddly thrilling in a “your real dad meeting your step dad and they totally hit it off” kind of way?

12. A few rounds of Kings in the Corner (aka Solitaire with people) at a picnic table near The Natural Bridge Falls—the water disappears under rocks for a little while and then shoots back out beneath them. Gorgeous and vaguely terrifying.

    

    Dare ya to eat a wild rose

13. Pages 1–57 of the Tim Cahill collection A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg. The title is a reference to corny men’s magazine adventure stories that are written in present tense (which, lol, love an extremely niche diss). Tim’s a Livingston guy and he’s one of the founders of Outside magazine, so I’ve been really excited to read his work. I’m now devoted to him.

14. This zucchini and saffron pasta, which I tested for an upcoming backpacking trip. So good. Honestly a luxury if you’re feeling hungry but not particularly ambitious in any scenario.

15. An emotionally charged reunion between Ted and his long-distance best friend, Tango Honey.

    

Speaking of friends, I need more of them in Montana! If you’re reading this, live around here, and also want more friends, please do DM 🤠

Rec of the week: Movies featuring an actor in their absolute prime?

In the spirit of mid-90210 Luke Perry as Lane Frost....

Thanks for reading!
Mallory